With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new projects from Tune-Yards, Aminé, Lido Pimienta, R2R Moe, Chuckkyy, Youth Code, Grails, and Ezra Furman. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)
Tune-Yards: Better Dreaming [4AD]
It was hard to shake the striking tone of Merrill Garbus’ voice when Tune-Yards debuted in the 2000s. All these years later, that still holds true. The singer and multi-instrumentalists leads her band through another collection of vocal-forward art-rock on Better Dreaming, beginning with the shrieks and harmonies that burst at the seams on opener “Heartbreak.” While bassist Nate Brenner pushes his grooves up close on the single “Limelight” and revives those lite funk licks on “How Big Is the Rainbow,” Garbus loops her falsettos and coos so they swell into a cacophonous bouquet of indie-pop.
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Aminé: 13 Months of Sunshine [10K Projects]
Barely two years after partnering with Kaytranada for their collaborative album Kaytraminé, Aminé isn’t ready to get off the dancefloor. The Portland, Oregon, rapper and singer surrounds himself with infectious piano loops and club-ready beats on his third solo studio album. Radiating with sparkling pop hooks and coy lyrical nods, 13 Months of Sunshine is a reminder of the strengths that separate Aminé from the rest of the pack without coming across like he’s trying hard to stand out. Across 16 songs, the album is as eager for summer as you are.
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Lido Pimienta: La Belleza [Anti-]
One of the singles from La Belleza, Lido Pimienta’s fourth album, drew inspiration from her 2021 stint composing music for the New York City Ballet. That song, “Aún Te Quiero,” is a love song to former selves and people who long ago exited your life, where the thuds of mallets hitting timpanis and build of strings illustrate the emotional peaks of that heavy, but invaluable, feeling. Fully orchestrated and packed with Pimienta’s rich vocals, the follow-up to 2020’s Miss Colombia was written by Pimienta and co-orchestrated with Owen Pallett, and goes all-in on its similarly expansive and cinematic tracks.
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R2R Moe: Road 2 Riches, Vol. 1 [IIIXL Studio]
Harlem rapper R2R Moe is credited with started angelic drill, the genre that combines New York drill with melodic elements and personal storytelling. He explores the sound across his latest mixtape, Road 2 Riches, Vol. 1, with down-to-earth verses and an unpretentious approach. The follow-up to last year’s Mr. R2R was led by the fluffy synths of “Not in My Bag” and the whirring drum slaps in single “Hawk ’Em.”
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Chuckyy: I Live, I Die, I Live Again [Santa Anna]
Expect to hear the villainous giggle of a young child that’s been possessed—perhaps even akin to that of horror icon Chucky—on the latest mixtape from Chuckyy, the 19-year-old rapper from Chicago who loves nothing more than an eerie instrumental. I Live, I Die, I Live Again summons that laughter like a producer would his shameless tag, but, here, it acts as further scene setting for Chuckyy’s dark, haunting songs. Led by the viral hit “My World,” the 11-track mixtape has a surprisingly light touch on drill given the heavy aesthetics it channels.
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Youth Code: Yours, With Malice EP [Sumerian]
Youth Code—the whiplash industrial EBM duo of multi-instrumentalists Sara Taylor and Ryan George—return with their first record in four years. Yours, With Malice thrashes wildly across its brief runtime. A combination of intricate, warped beats and unfiltered vocal impulses, Yours, With Malice harkens back to the brooding electronica of early 1990s industrial records by the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, and is a welcome return by Youth Code following A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression, their 2021 collaboration with King Yosef.
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Grails: Miracle Music [Temporary Residence Ltd.]
Experimental rock group Grails push upward and outward on their new album, Miracle Music, a hazy swirl of ambient synths, improvisational drumming, and acoustic and electric guitars. Grails also bursts through classical compositions across the album to find more space in the air around themselves. Whether it’s the moving trumpet runs on “Strange Paradise” or the mounting crescendos of opening track “Silver Bells,” Grails tread in an atmosphere that never feels fully grounded or totally psychedelic, opting to instead bridge that gap on Miracle Music.
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Ezra Furman: Goodbye Small Head [Bella Union]
Ezra Furman opens her new album, Goodbye Small Head, with a trippy vocal loop and the rough pulls of a bow across a cello. “It can happen whenever/I don’t hold the lever,” she sings on “Grand Mal,” setting up the project’s arc: Though we can’t know when life’s sudden winds will blow us over, we can try our best to mentally prepare for the force. Furman summons the energy to make Goodbye Small Head a rallying cry for those learning how to ground themselves, be it with the shrieks and demands of the indie-rock explosion “Jump Out” or the blues riff at the heart of “Power of the Moon.” In relinquishing control, the follow-up to 2022’s All of Us Flames finds stability, however fleeting.
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